1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of application program interfaces for supporting media objects. More specifically, the invention relates to a system and method for integrating media objects for viewing on and manipulation via a computing device such as a personal computer.
2. Background
Computers and other processor based devices handle many kinds of data. Various kinds of data may be accessed by computers, including two-dimensional (2D) objects and 2D virtual reality enhanced images having three-dimensional (3D) properties. Operating systems provide utilities which may be used by application programs for various purposes, including the low-level handling of media objects. Many operating systems do not provide more than rudimentary support for the handling of 2D media objects and do not generally support enhanced 2D media objects. Additional utilities may be provided via application program interfaces commonly referred to as APIs. Some extensions to operating systems may provide the facility to separately view various kinds of 2D media objects. One such operating system extension is the QuickTime® System from Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. The ability to integrate multiple 2D media objects and 3D enhanced 2D objects into a scene having 3D properties and to then manipulate the scene and the objects is not provided in current operating systems and operating systems extensions.